Transit & Travel Consulting
I made an appearance on this week's episode of Pedalshift with Tim Mooney, which reminded me I hadn't shared this episode from my winter bike overnight in February on my Brompton folding bike. It was perhaps more successful than Tim's most recent ride on the C&O Trail, albeit shorter, a few degrees warmer and solo (sans dog). Notice how there was no snow in Denver but about four feet at my apartment just 75 miles west (and 4,000 feet higher) in Breckenridge.
An informative panel discussion with four winter bicycling veterans in Minneapolis. We cover bike handling, what to wear and how to prepare your two-wheeled vehicle for our favorite season. Sneak away from the holiday dinner for this special episode and get ready to ride across a frozen lake, visit an ice shanty, ride a ski bike, go mountain biking, make your own DIY winter tire solution or just buy a fat bike and impress your friends.
Alternatively, you could stay inside and read Kat's excellent Grease Rag post on winter bike safety & handling, all about Ice Biking, what not to ride in the winter, and get your snowy terminology in order. Then go back listen to Episode 33 for Low's perspective on building community and supporting new and old bicyclists.
Brock Dittus and Aaron Flores take a break from hosting The Sprocket Podcast to join me from rainy Portland, Oregon, for a discussion of biking in cold and wet weather. We discuss the three elements -- clothing, bike setup, behavior -- of a warm and dry trip, without any fancy gear or sacrifices.
Most importantly, do what works for you. And if you want to avoid the rain altogether you might try saving up for a velomobile.
Head over to The Sprocket Podcast for more info on these fine Cascadians.
Share your comments and suggestions for topics/guests by emailing feedback@criticaltransit.com, using the contact form or following my work on Facebook and Twitter.
If you enjoy what you hear, please consider supporting better, more frequent shows by making a donation, sharing it with your friends and colleagues, and leaving a review on iTunes and other places.
The unique geography of Madison, Wisconsin -- built on an isthmus, a narrow strip of land between two lakes -- creates an interesting bus service design. It's not quite narrow enough to put all buses on one street that everyone could walk to for very frequent service, but still there is frequent combined service on three corridors running the length of the isthmus. Like many agencies, Madison Metro Transit is struggling to manage steady growth in ridership. They were recently awarded the Outstanding Public Transportation Award for their efforts to improve and promote their service in innovative ways. Marketing Director Mick Rusch joins me to discuss their services and some of the operational issues they deal with.
Bus routes and schedules are designed to facilitate connections at a series of transfer points at the edges of the city and downtown around the State Capitol. The most transit friendly city in Wisconsin has installed many transit priority facilities such as bus lanes and most notably a busway for the full length of the busy State Street pedestrian mall. The University of Wisconsin offers unlimited transit passes for their students, faculty and staff.
Metro Transit is struggling to deal with overcrowding and is even considering raising fares in order to increase service frequency. Would changing from a city department to a regional transit authority be the solution? Listen in to learn about bus-bike interaction, winter weather, bus technology and much more.
In the second half a listener shares a video on the structure of Singapore's bus and rail networks and suggests that privatized transit can only work well when heavily regulated. But if a public entity makes all the important decisions, is it still attractive to those who advocate for deregulation? We also consider whether transit agencies should strive for profit, and suggests a way for the public sector to capture and reinvest some of increasing real estate values that their services facilitate.
Send your comments and suggestions for topics and/or guests by contacting me. Follow the blog at criticaltransit.com, and if this work is useful to you, please support the show to help me continue traveling and reporting.
I've arrived in Chicago! First up is my good friend and fellow bike nerd and pedicab driver, Minku Sharma, host of the Vegan Pedicab Podcast. We talk winter biking, rickshaws and other transportation related matters.
Enjoy our thoughts on some current events including the ongoing New York City school bus drivers strike (Citizen Radio), privatization of public services and parking meters, car sharing, red light cameras. We explain why bike advocates should not be excited about Obama's nominee for Secretary of the Interior and why it makes no sense to prevent his new Chief of Staff from biking to work. The Colorado Supreme Court recently struck down one town's attempt to ban bicycling.
Please visit criticaltransit.com, follow me on Twitter @JeremyInTransit, at like the facebook page. Please support my Sustainable Transport Tour fundraising campaign on Indiegogo if you get something from this show and want to see it get even better and more frequent.
